The last time Piper Ross saw her best friend’s sexy older brother, Jase Simmons, he was being taken away in handcuffs. Seven years later, two things haven’t changed: Piper is still head-over-heels in love with him . . . and Forrestville’s chief of police—Piper’s dad—still hates his guts. So when Piper sees a chance to get close to Jase, she makes her move—literally. As his new roommate, and as the office manager of his tattoo shop, Piper won’t be satisfied until Jase knows that she wants to be his.

The quintessential good girl, Piper is pure temptation for Jase. The only reason he’s always kept his distance is because she’s the last person he’d ever want to hurt. But once he realizes that Piper is ready to take the leap, everything just makes sense. Suddenly Jase feels like a new man—until nasty rumors start swirling and Piper’s heartless father stirs up even more trouble. Now Jase must convince Piper that she wasn’t wrong about him . . . because falling in love never felt so right.

I never should have agreed to allow her to move in with me, I think for the hundredth time. But she’d batted those damn lashes and I caved, I remind myself for the thousandth time.

I never cave. I never have trouble saying no to women. I do it all the time.

No, I won’t call you. No, you can’t spend the night. No, your hot friend can’t join—okay, so I do say yes to that. But Piper’s not like those women. She’s different in every way. Every way that would be good for anyone who isn’t me.

“Can I have the room on the second floor, the one with the big bay of windows in the back?” she asks as she lightly jogs down the stairs. Her full breasts bounce under her green sleeveless top while her denim skirt teases me with glimpses of the golden skin of her thighs. “It’s so pretty in there.”

That room is right beside mine. I won’t be able to take it, having her so close. No. Tell her no.

Piper walks up to me, a sweet smile on her face. “I promise to be quiet and not keep you up at night.”

Baby, there’s no way you’ll be the one keeping me up at night. “That room—”

“Oh, I don’t know what I was thinking. You probably want more privacy than that.” Her smile grows faint as she shakes her head. “Sorry. I’ll bring my stuff downstairs right now and move into the bedroom on the other side of the house.”

Shit. I’ve hurt her feelings. “You didn’t let me finish, kitten. That room—the room you want—is perfect for you. Back when they built this house in the 1920s, it belonged to the owner’s wife.”

“You can up the rent if you need to. I think that room is bigger than the rest—except for yours.” She blushes when she says this, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s thinking of the time she walked in on Angel and me.

I’m not proud, but I’m not exactly ashamed to admit that it turned me on watching Piper watching us. She’d stood there, in the sexiest fucking dress I’d ever seen her wear, and hadn’t moved while Angel sucked me off, and I imagined that the lips around my cock were Piper’s instead.

Only Piper hadn’t been thinking that. It had shocked her. She’d been embarrassed, not turned on. Hell, I’m pretty sure I disgusted her, given the way she’d suddenly turned and run down the stairs. My reaction, after I chased after her, hadn’t been the best, either.

I’d insulted her, called her a princess, and generally treated the sweetest, most thoughtful person in the world like she was worthless.

It’s my own fault for wanting what I can’t have. For allowing myself to think I could touch someone like Piper.

I was already in hell, but now that Piper’s moving in, I’ll be in Dante’s Inferno.

“Rent’s firm.” I inhale the floral scent of her expensive perfume. “Can you start work on Monday?”

“Yes to Monday, and after the semester starts, I can be there right after my last class. It ends at two p.m.” She bites her bottom lip. “So about guests . . . What’s the rule for visitors?”

I didn’t have any rules. Why would I? I’m twenty-six years old and spent the last seven years in prison. Rules fucking chafe.

But I doubt that Piper feels the same way. Growing up with a cop for a dad, she’s bound to cling to rules. Unless she’s looking to rebel.

“You need me to meet any potential boyfriends?” I ask, lifting a brow.

“You would scare them off.” She keeps biting her lip. Oh, hell. She’s not biting it, she’s chewing on it.

Reaching out, I gently touch her bottom lip. “You’re going to make it bleed.”

As a teenager, Seth O’Connor went to jail for a crime he had nothing to do with. He took the fall to protect the girl he loved, but the cruel realities of prison hardened him. After doing his time, Seth shuts her out and enlists in the Marines—until his grandmother’s funeral forces him to come home and face Rowan Simmons once again. The woman she’s become puts all his high-school memories to shame, and Seth wants her more than ever. Can he be honest about why he denied her for so long?After Seth pushed her away, Rowan swore that no man would ever hurt her again. But the boy who broke her heart has become a sexy Marine, capable of fulfilling her every desire—and now that he’s back in town, old feelings are simmering to a boil. Rowan wants to stay strong, even as her body surrenders to his expert touch. She only hopes that by taking him back, she can finally help heal the wounds that drove them apart.

About the author:

Marquita Valentine is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of the Holland Springs and Boys of the South series.

Since first taking the plunge in July of 2012 to self publish, Marquita Valentine has sold over a quarter of a million books around the world. She’s appeared on the Top 100 Bestselling Ebooks Lists on iBooks, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes&Noble. She’s been called “one of the best new voices in romance” (Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews) and her books have been accused of being “a sexy, fun, and slightly addicting contemporary read” (The Book Queen).

When she’s not writing sexy heroes who adore their sassy heroines, she enjoys shopping, reading, and spending time with her family and friends. Married to her high school sweetheart, Marquita lives in a seriously small town in the south with her husband, two kids, and a dog.